


Nerve in Seoul

by Serla



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Action, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:34:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22780324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serla/pseuds/Serla
Summary: A game that challenges young people to complete dares and stream it online lands on Seoul, South-Korea. Who would want to play a game like this? Why would people watch it? Does it bring anything new to your life? Maybe, even new people?
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	Nerve in Seoul

**Author's Note:**

> The idea is based on movie and novel called Nerve. The fanfic doesn't spoil the original creation in any way, just the concept is stolen. Enjoy c:

Restaurant’s door opened and a tall young man stepped inside. He blew warm air onto his palms and enjoys the good smell that lingered around the space. Restaurant’s co-owner rushed towards him with a black menu on her hands. Man showed three fingers up even though he was alone. But he was expecting a company, and the lady guided him to a table for four. She gave the menus to him and rushed back behind the counter. The counter was high and the short woman had to jump to a stool to be able to work comfortably.  
Man didn’t even bother to open the menu. He went here regularly and knew already he would order the house’s noodle soup. Perfect for the weather. Instead he pulled his phone out of the jacket pocket and scrolled endlessly social medias. He wasn’t even paying attention what was happening on his screen. He just couldn’t sit and wait without some form of stimulus. 

“Chanyeol”, voices behind him said. He looked up from phone and saw both of his friend taking seats at the table.  
“Hi”, man said and politely turned off his phone screen. Both of them were taking off coats and fluffy scarfs. Chanyeol laughed a bit as he saw one of them, Sehun, getting suck to his own clothes. Thank god it was getting warmer next week, weather had been acting up this spring. Soon enough they got safely seated and other one, Junmyeon, began to flip through menu. Sehun didn’t even bother, he like Chanyeol had already decided. Sehun looked at Chanyeol now excited.  
“Did you download it and register?”, he asked. 

Ah crap, the game. Sehun and Junmyeon were so excited about some event starting next week. Sports or something like that. Chanyeol didn’t really care about following other people playing against each other on a field, but his friends had been super excited for a month already. They had planned getting together every night to follow the stream. Well, hopefully they would bring in beer and snacks. That should be reward from having to follow something he wasn’t interested in.  
“No, sorry”, Chanyeol said. There was still time, he could register later. But Sehun’s face frowned.  
“Chanyeol! Now I have to send you a new link. If you don’t register yourself in 30 minutes, the link destroys itself”, he explained, rolling his eyes a bit. Duh, as if Chanyeol should have obviously know it. Junmyeon seemed to have decided and waved to the waiter now. They ordered their foods and Chanyeol used the chance to change the subject from the game.

“Was your day any better today?”, Chanyeol asked from Junmyeon. Junmyeon’s workplace had an incident not too long ago. Ever since their days were chaotic and busy. Junmyeon working on a customer service had to take all the angry customer calls and email. Man even looked a bit tired and stressed, judging from his eyes.  
“Well, I guess better than so far.. But still there is a lot to do”, he said. Chanyeol nodded.  
“If someone resigns please tell me. I could use more steady job”, Chanyeol sighed. He managed, working some shifts in a pizza place. But it wasn’t very glamorous either. Especially since his mother’s hospital bills were high and his father didn’t earn a lot either.  
Junmyeon looked at him, a pity in his eyes. Agh, not that look. Shouldn’t have even said anything. But Junmyeon promised to let him know, even though there probably wouldn’t be any open spots for him.

Sehun was weirdly quiet. His thick eyebrows were crunching and his look was focused.  
“There, I sent you a new link. And you have to register now”, he said seriously to Chanyeol.  
“Fine, fine…”, man mumbled opening their chatroom and getting the link. “So what sport this was?” he asked.  
Now both Junmyeon and Sehun stared at him.  
“You must be kidding”, Sehun gasped.  
“Have you listened 0 things we have said?”, Junmyeon complained.  
“It’s not a s p o r t”, Sehun said mildly offended.  
“No, it’s a game. Psychological, entertaining game. Never seen before”, Junmyeon declared passion in his words.

“Oookay”, Chanyeol said ignoring his friends and opened the link to a browser. He downloaded a file and let the app install itself.  
“Anyone can play it”, Junmyeon explained.  
“Yeah, anyone stupid enough”, Sehun chuckled. He took amusement following people embarrassing themselves. Chanyeol got a notification that let him know the installation was ready. He opened the app. It started rolling some sort of introduction. He tried to skip it but the black screen didn’t move. With a sigh he listened a robotic voice that read texts out loud.

WELCOME TO N E R V E SEOUL

NERVE IS A ONE WEEK GAME.

A GAME LIKE TRUTH OR DARE, MINUS THE TRUTH.

WATCHERS PAY TO WATCH, PLAYERS PLAY TO WIN CASH AND GLORY.

ARE YOU A WATCHER OR A PLAYER?

Next and behind the texts were some clips of people doing stuff. Jumping off a cliffs, running away, hiding behind corners. It didn’t really explain much. Chanyeol swiped to a next slide, and it showed some rules. First half of the rules were written in red, for watchers. Rest were for the players, written in green.

WATCHERS. 

1\. Free trial is 30 minutes.  
2\. 1 hour subscription costs 5 000 won.  
24 hours subscription costs 10 000 won.  
Whole week subscription costs 50 000 won.  
3\. Watchers can film players, but they can’t interrupt or help them doing dares.  
4\. Watchers suggest and vote the dares the players will do. 

Chanyeol’s mouth opened in a round form.  
“50 000 won!? Are they crazy?? Are you guys crazy?”, he looked at Junmyeon and Sehun.  
“It’s for a whole week, and it’s so worth it”, Junmyeon said with a shrug. “Hey you can watch with us, or I can even pay for your subscription”.  
Chanyeol shook his head. He would never let them spend money on him for something like this. He read rest of the rules.

PLAYERS.

1\. You must film all your dares for them to be successful.  
3\. You must complete your dares in a given time frame for them to be successful.  
4\. There is two ways to get eliminated: fail or bail. If you get eliminated you lose your prizes.  
5\. Snitches get stitches. 

Most of the rules were pretty understandable for Chanyeol, but he wondered what the last one meant. There was no more info even though he tried to look for it. Next slide just asked him to fill up ID and password.  
“That’s it?”, Chanyeol was confused. Sehun shrugged.  
“They like to keep it simple and traceless”, he explained.  
“Oh, that doesn’t sound sketchy at aaall”, Chanyeol mocked. After signing up the app asked: Are you a watcher or a player? Chanyeol didn’t get to choose as their food was brought to the table.  
“Finally”, they said, thanked the waitress and digged in. Warm noodle soup tasted spectacular, as always. 

“So, what’s so exciting about this nerve? That you are ready to pay to watch it?”, Chanyeol asked confused, taking a sip from a water.  
“It starts from slow. People get little dares and little prizes. But every day when there is less players, dares go harder. Players will embarrass themselves and even end up risky situations over some money or a car or a vacation”, Sehun said excited, Junmyeon nodding.  
“We read one american’s experience. The game has been mostly held in America, few european cities and Delhi. And now it’s in our country”, Junmyeon started slowly. Sehun continued from his words:  
“Anyway, the american watcher has been watching almost every game. It’s held once in 3 months. There is so much different options. First people will do something mild like sing in public or lick someone like a cat.”  
Sehun and Junmyeon looked at each other. Junmyeon nodded and continued:  
“But at the end of the week last players would accept dares like hanging on top of a building or having sex on camera or something like that.”  
Hearing all that didn’t convince Chanyeol. Social porn where tons of people would laugh at few individuals was never his thing.  
“There must be big prizers for people to agree on that…”, Chanyeol said quietly and stuffed more noodles to his mouth.  
“We are talking about almost one hundred million of won”, Sehun said dead-serious look on his face. Junmyeon nodded. “Depends of course what kind of dares and prizes the winner have been able to collect. Only one wins the game, rest lose what they have collected”, Junmyeon added. 

Chanyeol didn’t ask anymore questions so rest of the dinner they focused on eating and talking about whatever- newest gossip, plans for rest of the month and a little bit what they would do if they won grand prize of Nerve. After eating they split the bill and separated on their way.

Chanyeol went to metro and travelled to his home. He didn’t yet own his own place. He maybe could, but he wanted to help his parents through mom’s difficult time. It was fine, many people lived with their parents on their 20s. And his reason was very good too. Yes, it bothered him sometimes but that was life. Having to deal with negatives sides to work for something good. He took a lift and went to their floor, and tapped the passcode. Door clicked and he got inside. A smell of alcohol rushed to his nose. His father was home, sitting on the kitchen table, not even paying attention to him. His whole appearance was tired. 

“Hi”, Chanyeol greeted his dad while taking off his shoes. He digged up money from his pockets- his paycheck- and went to a jar. When he opened the lid to put the money inside he noticed it was oddly empty.  
“Yeah, sorry”, his father said with a husky voice. Chanyeol put the money in it and slowly closed the lid. He turned to his father who said:  
“I loaned some for food since your mother medical bill took most of my paycheck this month. Sorry. I’ll pay back soon”, he mumbled pouring a new soju shot for himself. Chanyeol didn’t believe his words, but it was fine. It was for mom, after all. It would be pretty childish from me to bitch about something like this.  
“Okay. Good night”, he said and left the kitchen and locked himself to his room.

He sat down on to his computer and looked at the black screen. The reflection showed his messy hair, saggy eyes and frowning lips. He was ashamed of himself. He, in fact, was a bit offended for losing his money. And the fact he felt this way even though his mother could die in any minute made him feel bad. Just if he would get a better job….

He didn’t even think about it when he pulled out his phone and went back to the Nerve app. It still asked: Are you a watcher or a player? Sehun and Junmyeon probably waited for him to apply for a watcher quickly so they could follow it together from Monday. Chanyeol bit his lips. Very quickly as the device could explode in any minute he pressed the player button. Soon the app asked his finger print. He put his finger to the reader. All clear.  
“Approve to access of data?”, the app asked. It wanted to collect information from his other social medias. He clicked a box and the site loaded. It took some time, it was checking all of his profiles on the internet. Next text stated:

CONGRATULATIONS

YOU’RE IN.

YOUR FIRST DARE BEGINS AT 9 AM ON MONDAY.

That’s all. No more info, nothing. Chanyeol stared blankly to his phone, unsure what to do. He had signed up to play a game he thought was stupid. Just for some money? He plugged his phone to a charger and got up. Few rounds walking in his room. He was so stupid… The chance though? But he could lose everything… And make fool of himself for nothing. But then again, what he had to lose? He had like two friends, who else would watch the game? Maybe it wouldn’t even be popular in the South-Korea. He got up, got washed and went to sleep. He almost didn’t even remember signing up to the game before the next morning when he could read text message from Sehun.

“Please tell me that the Park Chanyeol who signed up as a player for the Nerve isn’t you”

Well, not his proudest morning.


End file.
